Morning Report – 4-9-14 – Miami, Minor and Major Observations

1923 Giants

Coming Up –

        11am – Q and A with Savannah Sand Gnat John Gant from Savannah

         6pm -  Jeff Hoffman, Luke Weaver, Michael Gettys, Joe Dunand

         8pm – OF - Gareth Morgan - North Toronto (ON) Collegiate

Boy, it’s getting tougher to churn out a decent amount of Met information every day. I use the standard rule of a minimum of 1000 words for the morning report and I try to make most of them original (I used to cut and past to other sites but I never got that in return so I stopped that process). We only have one original post in the hopper for the rest of the week (the Gant interview that posts up today at 11am) so, hang in there. Maybe a good road winning streak with six Travis d’Arnaud home runs would help.

One of our readers here alerted me that RP Vic Black went on the DL. I got in touch with the ‘powers to be’ in Vegas and was told that couldn’t be confirmed without the permission of the minor league ballplayer. That simply was something I had never heard before and I’ve never had problems getting this kind of information out of Savannah, St. Lucie, or Binghamton. So, I contacted Adam Rubin and let him run with the story and I saw that he did manage to confirm Black’s pinched nerve (Rubin also told me that Black has already resumed warming up so this shouldn’t last long). Just a weird set of circumstances.

Miami –

Bottom Feeders - Some are struggling, some are soaring; either way, it’s too soon to amend preseason expectations.

27. New York Mets (2-4, -9)     

22. Miami Marlins (5-2, +21)

The Fish are tied with the Giants for the best record in the National League, and they’ve posted the most runs scored (42) and best run differential (plus-21) in the majors. Not a bad first week for the team many thought would be the NL’s worst this year.There are two ways to look at the Marlins’ fast start. The first is to continue to buy into the preseason consensus, but count these first five wins. So, if you entered the season thinking the Marlins were going to be a 67-95 team, you should tack a couple more wins onto their season total, but only a couple more wins. You don’t want to adjust too severely, since you still think this is a true-talent 67-win team, but you also can’t ignore these five wins, because assuming that the Marlins’ fast start is bound to result in more losses down the road would be falling victim to the gambler’s fallacy.[i] [ii]

Minor Observations – Monday night (Tuesday morning’s) Las Vegas game was not a good one for SP Daisuke Matuzaka. Dice is supposed to be a senior veteran of this sport and a stint at the AAA level should be a no-breeze outing. I don’t expect much from the Mets this season, but if Rafael Montero and Jacob deGrom can toss up goose eggs, I don’t think I’m asking for a better outing than: 5.0-IP, 5-H, 3-ER, 4-K, a ridiculous 4-BB, and a 5.40 ERA. I can’t see any reason why this job can’t be given to Darin Gorski while Cory Mazzoni heals on the 7-day DL

       

There’s hard to find criticism of anything Las Vegas is doing these days, but I’m keeping a special eye on Cesar Puello, who went 2-4 Monday night, with a double and run batted in. He also scored the winning run on a Matt den Dekker walk-off infield single. The seasonal stats so far represent a very small sample[iii]; however, what isn’t there is the usual dip in stats one sees when a player jumps to a higher level. Puello seems to be fitting in just fine with already three multiple hit games out of five played.

       

Jenrry Mejia[iv]

        Jenrry Mejia / SP / New York Mets - For Mets fans, Mejia is a familiar name, as he was the organization’s top pitching prospect when the decade began. But despite debuting in the majors four years ago at the age of 20, he’s been beset by injuries throughout his professional tenure. But he’s back on the fantasy radar, with his ownership surging in CBS leagues after he shut down the Reds on Friday with six strong innings to earn the win. Mejia’s always had a high ceiling, but finally flashed signs of being a fantasy asset last year over his five big league starts, when he struck out nearly a batter per inning (dressed with a strong 12.1 SwStr%), kept the walks in check and generated ground balls at a strong clip. Not a big sample size, to be sure, especially considering he was pulled early from start No. 5 with an elbow injury that would eventually require surgery, but hey, positive signs nonetheless.

Players that started the season on the DL:

        Las Vegas (AAA): RHP Jeremy Hefner, 1B Brandon Allen

Binghamton (AA): C Blake Forsythe

St. Lucie (Hi A): RHP Luis Mateo (22), RHP Taylor Whitenton, LHP Alex Panteliodis

Savannah (Lo A): RHP Logan Taylor 

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

[ii] http://grantland.com/features/the-30-marlins-orioles-reds-braves-tigers/

[iii] http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=527049

[iv] http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/jenrry-mejia-jason-kubel-deep-league-waiver-wire/